The Player and her Batter
by Marbleschu
Summary: Fanfiction where you are the Player and you have the task of seeing the Batter completes his "justified mission". I started this because there needs to be moar OFF! This is the version with FemalePlayer. There will be a MalePlayer. Rated M for Mature reasons; we all love it, I'm pretty sure. Cover image will be added soon of FemalePlayer and her Batter
1. Chapter 1

_**The Bunker**_

A lone purple bunker was where the Batter and the being that controlled him, known as Player, sheltered for the night. Sleep was something that he never had needed, however this took a toll on the Player after long hours of being awake.

She'd continue on her mission with him for days without rest. When she finally did, she would sleep just as long.

Two single beds had been pushed together to assemble a makeshift queen bed. The silent athlete rested on the outer of the bed, straight on his back without any sign of relaxation. The dark being slept with the white sport tunic his puppet had given to her with her hands bunched into it at her chest. Her knees were always pulled against her stomach as she slept in a lumpy, oddly shaped ball.

Like sleep had, the temperature also sought to bring stress upon her body. As Batter was an extension of herself, a vessel to her power, thoughts and actions, he could feel her body as it responded to the environment. He could feel when her body needed to come to rest.

He didn't experience a mirrored feeling, but rather he could hear her body as it reacted. He thought it best to at least sleep close to her in addition of the tunic to stop her body from talking so dependently. Not for his own benefit of silence but to receive comfort that her body was silent when it was safe and satisfied.

The deep breathing could be heard from her as lungs took in the smoke of zone 2. The shipment of smoke had come rather late and because of that it was rather stale and made it difficult to breathe without effort.

This never changed him. He received his breath as long as she breathed for her self. His heart would beat on its own just by the fact that hers worked for its own body. He was so, just because she was. He never even needed to try. For this he felt like a parasite. A parasite in ways that she controlled, being her vessel that she invested energy and life into.

Although he could move on his own and decidedly disobey her, it became severely draining to do so. When he tried, his heart became burdened along with his breathing. As he moved on his own her control wasn't needed and he had to make on his own. For this reason he always acted upon instructed. It was easiest after all.

Even if she were to slip from the delicate decision and make a wrong move, the consequences were never damaging. Even so he never doubted her. He had no reason to. They had faced tight situations before but due to the tall, forwardness of his strength made in the image of his will, he never let anything set its sights on his Player for long. At times, his purity would slip from him and his intentions would be to clear anything that attempted to get to her.

Her words are divine. Her breath and her steps carry him; direct him even as she walks behind him. Any direction she moves in, his body follows like her foreshadow. He would harness such purity that she gave him and allow it to swallow any minor ailments upon defeating adversaries.

As he reflected in silence, he remembered what he had been taught earlier. Their paths crossed two, troubled Elsen who were discussing something in rough gasps. Their conversation continued to worsen with black smoke escaping from their mouths. The Player moved close to the Elsen, taking her hand out to brush her black fingertips against his cheek. Her hands moved forward and her body embraced him like a dark shadow. The breath hitched to a startled cough from the Elsen. The Batter's body jerked and it took a lot more effort to hold him steadfast, the fear of the Elsen turning Burnt and then against his Player was a bit too close for comfort.

"Batter, do as I do to the other Elsen there. Let him feel the security that he asks which his guardian has failed to accommodate. The Guardian of metal has failed to realize his employers are not as solid." She said, seemingly talking to the Elsen rather than the skittish athlete beside her.

He moved to hold the Elsen lightly and at the first contact sent ripples of fear through the Athlete. His body was absorbing the panic and stress; he could feel it being passed through skin. "You are pure. Purity will heal. You've never given it a chance, have you?" She spoke up. The silent man felt like he had forgotten something. He had been going through paces, taking away something. Yet he hadn't given it back.

"I'll put more thought into it, but since you bring it to light, there is something that doesn't seem right.." He glanced back down at the Elsen who was whispering gratitude to him between calming inhales.

He looked back towards the sleeping shadow that was his Player. It was that shared issues of sleep and the cold affected her body. She had knowledge of what can kill a man and also make him stronger.  
What was to happen when everything was completed? A sullen frown banished the doubtful thoughts from his head. He wasn't anywhere near ready to admit he was having trouble.

He was Pure. It had been easy from the start to be that way. Taking the words his Player had said to him; "Ignorance is innocence.. Pity is weakness. With that, knowledge is power and with great power comes great responsibility."  
Having said that, he had made certain that he was pure. That he was ignorant to the truth, it was in only his Player's ability to be powerful, she did have control and therefore had the responsible of guiding them and their choices.

His Player's signature was power.


	2. Chapter 2

**Missing Pages**

The Batter reached the metal bunker and cranked the heavy lock into its correct combination and quietly urged his Player inside.  
He took the hems of his new tunic and pulled it over his head, handing it to his Player. She took it from him with a small smile and pulled it over her own and smoothed it out.

The Player took her bed with a heavy sigh of effort that still wore on her from the earlier letdowns.

Directions were usually second nature. Navigating mazes was usually as fluid as soapy water. That day, it just seemed like a big sponge was soaking up all efforts, leaving them annoyed and spent. The Library had more so succeeded in draining the Player into confusion and exhaustion. Back tracking several times to correct paths and findings only to have it change. It was a randomizer that she had no luck of predicting.

Her body kept nagging at the Batter until he took it upon himself to usher them away in to the bunker again for the night. However, she couldn't rest. Not yet. There were too many questions from what little was learnt. It hurt to let it all go and to possibly forget it all when she were to awaken.

One thought that she focused on lightly to calm herself was how pages had been torn out for some reasons that were only thought to be malicious and dangerous comportment. The Player was having trouble solving that particular knot, thanks to the Spectres who would often make off with the stolen pages and leave them whiles away from their positions. Her only string that controlled her petulant mood; frayed and effectively snapped. She shouted at the Spectres from frustration to which their only responses were detached, hollow laughs from beyond blind shadows.

She slowly closed her eyes, hoping she would cross paths with Judge once more in higher hopes that he would offer some sighted advice to help them in their mission.

XX,XX,XXXX

When his Player joined him in consciousness, they started in the direction, back to the Library in adept covertness. Bismark doesn't allow outsiders after all and if they wanted to keep their only known, purple bunker, it had to be without being appreciated.

This day that they moved into was a second chance to get further. In the short time they traveled, already they were covering more ground in double the time spent the day before.

The Spectres were defeated quickly before they were given any opportunities to run off with torn pages amidst encounters.

Dark hands could only carry one page at a time. Attempts had been made to try and possess more than one at the same time. These attempts showed the pages' text to become somehow scrambled and blotchy. Ink that was thought to be fixed, dry to paper, were then liquid messes about the paper. Odd letters left in wide spaces like mud marks on fresh carpet.

Quite fair amounts of running back and forth was involved which eventually left the Player with a need to have a small break.

The dark figure leant against a fake bookshelf and slid down to the blue carpet. The Batter could only stand and wait for the return of his frustrated Player to recover from her cessation.

In the time that passed, the Player did not move from her seated position with her back slouched against the shelves. She had become completely inanimate in the only way to truly rest.

The large white ring that covered the middle of her face was usually all that could be seen, save her mouth and brows. She hadn't any eyes for she didn't need them. The white ring was the only indication that was needed to show if she was conscious.

In this time, her face was a shadow. Void of the white ring that indicated her status.

"Do not fret, Mon Ami," Zacharie purred out to the Batter, slightly amused that the Holy man found the merchant in a frenzy of panic to bring assistance to his still Player. "She is merely in a coma-like status. You will be able to see the white ring when she returns to you," he added something else as the Batter ran back towards his sleeping puppeteer, "IF she comes back to you…"

Feeling alone without guidance or the often-abundant Spectres, the holy athlete took his seat next to the frozen Player.

He sat with a straight back, legs bent at the knees and his track shoes with the soles flat on the ground. His head turned slightly to his Player to get a painful angle to steal a look at her, afraid that she would catch his eyes. Might she have done if she were there? Certainly.

But, she wasn't, so he felt safe to turn his head full onto her. Her back had been slouched against the shelf in an awkward curve, elbows against thighs that sat cross-legged and her head dipped as if she were staring absently into her lap for something.

"Dear Player, I doubt that position is at all comfortable…" He spoke in a whisper with his lips pressed feather light into her shoulder. He looked up at her as he brushed his nose against the dark skin of her neck. Her skin was incredibly soft, warm but still being oddly cold.

Having some time of silent observation without the answer he didn't expect to come, he moved his arms around her torso and pulled her collectively into his lap. His straight posture guided her slouched back into his front, correcting the curve and leaving it in a more natural curve. To complete the motion he wrapped his arms around the absentee and rested the underside of his jaw against her shoulder so his ear pressed against her own.

It was nice. It was calming and made him relax in ways he has never needed to before. Even the constant flow of her hair was soothing. It always moved.  
Like large white flames of the sun, constantly licking the volume around it.

As she stayed stock still in his lap, her hair swayed in large sections, swimming slowly through invisible currents and bunched in to awkward twirling movements when its swimming motion rode out into the Batter's chest. It coiled and spilled into lazy spirals over his shoulders and arms instead. It all had to flow somewhere and he was more than content for the white warmth to wave over his frame.

More time passed in the cool scenery of the Library. The Batter had a thought to read her a story and found a book close by that would fit the bill. His face blanked to realize that the book was indeed, fake, and flicked his wrist to ditch it across the room.

Determined to keep his seat with his Player, he reached out a strong arm as far outwards as possible. As his fingers were centimetres from touching the fabric spine of a real book, he froze to a sensation of something indescribable, an unknown force that registered to be accumulating slowly.

The male startled as the Player reanimated once more, throwing off his balance and both collapsed onto their shoulders on their sides.  
"Got the book…" He flatly stated to his Player.


	3. Chapter 3

**Plastic shackles.**

"**_You are becoming shortsighted in your allotted task_**," A voice hissed at the Player.

Visually there was nothing. Something began, fading into view. The Player could see herself , as if detached from her body, standing in a space that seemed blank. Blank except for the colour orange underneath her feet.

"What task do you refer to?" She replied imperturbably, to whom she was conversing with, she had no knowledge.

"**With the ****_Batter_**," the voice spat, seething and impatient, "**You were assigned to directing the Batter in his task of purification upon this tainted land.****_ You are taking too much time, fooling about_****.**" The empty voice spoke of her _important_ mission.

"What does it matter? I seem to be having more difficulty when I advance further with each puzzle's resolution, it is not a lack of input on my behalf..." She replied in a sharp voice at having her task challenged.

**"Like we said before, you are becoming shortsighted. Do not _THINK_ about anything, _just do it_. It is not so complicated, we believed it would be little of an obstacle for you."**

The Player was now sneering and responded with fiery hostility, "And obstacle? _Purifying this tainted land_? Why is it then they all refuse? I keep getting asked if what I am doing is truly purification! One Elsen in the library.." She started slowly, remembering what he said each time an attempt was made to speak to him.

"He said the walls have ears, and that they could listen, but they could not speak back.. He talks of something someone once told him! He speaks of the wall protecting the books within the library! He then continues to say about how we could be protecting something without knowing! He repeats empty words someone told him!"

**"What is it you are getting at, Player.." **

"What I am getting at is that there is something more!" She straightened her arms and flexed her fists, emotions welling too much to the surface to stop them. After a moment's pause, she began again, in a dangerous voice of concern, " I begin to doubt this mission, I see no purpose to how _'purifying'_ this place will become something of better production when there is NOTHING LEFT TO DWELL UPON THIS SO CALLED PURITY!"She shouted, voicing her questions and her duty.

**"Nothing will live on this land if it has to be purified. It is all tainted.. therefore it must be removed.."**

"But what good will that do?! If there is nothing left to benefit that purity, what is the meaning in this mission?" There was silence before the reply.

**"Do not question any further! Continue to do so, and we can always find someone more.. suited to finish where you have failed us.."**

Her emotions boiled as she snarled silently, seething with doubt and the stinging pain of being black-mailed into something with no light of escape if she tried.  
"... I understand what you say to me..." She replied. Careful to conceal the snarl her mouth was pulled into that even began to ache. She was disgusted at being given so many lies and just to have the blind pull back over her eyes.

**"Continue, Player. Remember, there is something at the end that will be worth all your time..."**

Between the words, eyes were fixed upon her to the right. Tired, concerned and gentle eyes. They stared at the Player. The controlling voice was unaware of their presence as it drifted off.

Her vision obscured again to nothingness of an empty void. Along with the eyes. Unlike the Nothingness, there was nothing, no where to go, nothing to do. Except wait for herself to gain consciousness once more.

* * *

And wake again, she did.  
She sat up from her bed, clutching her head and felt gravely ill. Ill from being played, despite being allocated as the Player.  
Ill from the overwhelming emotions that were dismissed by that voice in the void of her dreams.

It felt real enough. Her hands were sore from being clenched too tightly for too long. Her head was swimming with nausea that had no sight of ending.

She looked around to see the Batter awake, sitting next to her with a concern look disturbing his features. "Dear Player, what appears to be troubling you?" He asked, searching her face to stir a truthful response.

"Batter, if I do tell you.. Time would be against us.." She sighed with the snarl still creasing her nose and lips.

"I know.. I heard everything that was said to you... I was there.. Did you not see me standing beside you, like I always do?"

She signed into her hands upon realising where he was talking about. "Yes, I saw you there with me.."She paused her thoughts, removing the white tunic from her dark body and returning it to the concerned athlete. "We must continue.. you heard what I was told.. I'd rather not be replaced considering how far we have come now.."

The Batter shook his head lightly as he took hold of her and moved her to stand on her feet out of the bed. "Yes.. bit now, we have another mission.. It is still the same; purification. But the prize has changed.. The Elsen in the library.. you said he was repeating things that were told to him.. I assume you mean someone or something knows of this mission..?" She laboured another tired breath.

"Yes.. someone knows more than we have been informed.." She said, wearily with the consideration that her progress was being monitored.

The Batter nodded and held his Player close to himself.  
"Then our mission shall begin.. OUR mission.. disband that control they have over you. Leave them and come with me.. Leave the confines you stay within to guide me, not be guided by some force you trust not..  
When you do, we have work to do within the library."

She sniffled quietly against his chest and put a hand gently to his shoulder.  
"If.. continuing to allow something to control me, were to mean our mission.. of purification is completed.. and that would then mean there is nothing left.. nothing but a plateau of what once was.. then I would rather take with our own mission, in the hopes something is left.. and something is answered to those pleading whispers in the Nothingness.. Then yes, I free myself from the binds of the purification mission. I will go with you Batter, I will always chose you; I will always be your Player."

She said, relying on the Batter to be beside her to weigh her choice, more to remind herself that no matter what she would have chosen, the Batter would have stood by her without any doubt. He always has.

Now she was doubting something that had control over her, something had to be done. Nothing was to be left otherwise.. so at least if damage is done, it is not as bad compared to continuing.

"And I will always chose you, you are my Player, that's all that need be." He said, holding her tightly.

"Come, guide me. We must investigate this further within the library.."  
"Godspeed, Batter," She whispered into his body.


End file.
